Falling tree kills man as storm lashes California

A pedestrian walks in the rain in front of a cable car in San Francisco, Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2019. A series of storms dropped rain up and down the state and snow in mountain regions this week, but the latest storm could be the strongest that Northern California has seen so far this year. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A falling tree killed a man in Oakland on Wednesday as a powerful storm lashed Northern California with high winds and rain, authorities said.

The man was struck on an embankment near Interstate 580 and died at the scene.

The man, who was homeless, may have been “just trying to stay dry,” California Highway Patrol Officer Herman Baza said. “Unfortunately, that protection was deadly.”

The latest storm in a series that has pounded California all week closed a major freeway, triggered deadly wrecks on slick roads, had people in wildfire-ravished communities bracing for dangerous mudslides and mountain residents facing “potentially life-threatening” blizzard conditions in the Sierra Nevada.

In Lake County, winds gusts of 71 mph (114 kph) were reported.

Pacific Gas & Electric reported that some 46,000 customers were without power Wednesday evening.

The heaviest rain was expected to fall Wednesday night but problems piled up earlier in the day.

Heavy snowfall and crashes shut down westbound Interstate 80 at the Nevada border, blocking one of the two routes to the Sierra Nevada and most of Northern California’s ski resorts, authorities said.

In Southern California, fog on a mountain highway triggered a 19-vehicle crash. Thirty-five people were evaluated for injuries after the pileup on Interstate 15 in Cajon Pass, but most declined to be taken to hospitals, the San Bernardino County Fire Department said.

A mudslide on a major Northern California freeway just north of the Golden Gate Bridge disrupted the morning commute. The slide closed southbound Highway 101 across the bridge for about an hour, shutting off the only direct access to San Francisco for drivers north of the city.

Weather concerns also kept a stretch of scenic Highway 1 in Big Sur closed.

In areas recently scarred by wildfires, authorities fear small rivers and creeks will flood their banks and cause massive mudslides, further damaging communities struggling to recover from a historically bad fire season.

The blazes stripped hillsides of trees and other vegetation that stabilize soil and prevent mudslides, putting at risk thousands of people living in foothill and canyon areas devastated by wildfires. That includes the Northern California region where a November fire killed 86 people and destroyed nearly 15,000 homes.

“If flooding occurs, this can quickly become a dangerous and life-threatening situation,” the Butte County Sheriff’s Office said.

Authorities told residents of Pulga to prepare to flee their canyon community that neighbors the town of Paradise, which was leveled two months ago by the Camp Fire.

Conditions started deteriorating on California roadways Tuesday night.

Three people, including an infant, were killed when their car spun out on a freeway in Placerville, about 130 miles (202 kilometers) east of San Francisco. Authorities blamed it on high speed and rain-slickened roads.

In the mountainous community of Truckee where it snowed Tuesday, residents were preparing for the next storm by clearing driveways and buying wood and food in case they have to stay inside.

“It took my husband an hour to get to Safeway last week because there were so many people and no one could get home,” Whitby Bierwolf told the Sacramento television station KCRA. “You just need to have an alternate plan and have enough stuff in your car because accidents happen.”

The Sierra Nevada and Lake Tahoe regions could see up to 5 feet (1.5 meters) of snow.

In the south, some evacuation orders were in place in the Malibu area west of Los Angeles and parts of neighboring Ventura County. Both were affected by a November fire that destroyed more than 1,500 homes and killed four people.

A rockslide Paul Manion was busy filling sandbags in the community of Bell Canyon.

“It’s something we have to do. I mean, if the water comes, it comes,” Manion told KABC-TV. “Everything around our house burned. All the houses around our house burned. But it’s the hillsides that we’re worried about.”

Others refused to leave after authorities went door to door at the high-risk Paradise Cove mobile home park in Malibu. Beaver Valenzuela said he’s survived fiercer storms and wouldn’t leave until he was convinced the danger was more immediate.

“I’m not going anywhere,” he told the Los Angeles news station./gsg